Criminal Justice News

Sunday, May 13, 2012

A federal jury sitting in Detroit,
Michigan convicted a Detroit-area physician for his role in a $6.7 million
Medicare Fraud scheme, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today.

Jonathan Agbebiyi, 62, of Sterling
Heights, Michigan, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health
care fraud and six counts of health care fraud. Agbebiyi was a staff physician
at three clinics that operated in Livonia, Michigan between 2007 and 2010:
Blessed Medical Clinic, Alpha and Omega Medical Clinic, and Manuel Medical
Clinic.

According to the evidence presented
during the one-week trial before United States District Judge Arthur Tarnow,
Jonathan Agbebiyi, an obstetrician/gynecologist, joined a conspiracy to bill
Medicare for medically unnecessary neurological tests. Some of the tests
involved sending an electrical current through the arms and legs of the
patients. Clinic employees, who lacked any meaningful training, administered
the diagnostic tests. The patients never received any follow up treatment by
neurologists.

Evidence at trial showed that the
patients were not referred to the clinics by their primary care physicians, or
for any other legitimate purpose but, rather, were recruited with prescriptions
for controlled substances, cash payments, and fast food. The three clinics then
billed the Medicare program for various diagnostic tests that were medically
unnecessary.

United States Attorney Barbara L.
McQuade stated, “This doctor exposed patients to neurological testing solely to
generate money for himself at the expense of the Medicare program. We are
grateful for the hard work that uncovered this betrayal of medical ethics and
theft of taxpayer funds.”

Including today’s guilty verdicts, nine
individuals involved with the three clinics have been convicted for their roles
in the scheme.

A sentencing date for Agbebiyi has been
set for August 13, 2012. Each count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud
and health care fraud carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine.

Today’s verdicts were announced by
Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade; Special Agent
in Charge Andrew G. Arena of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent
in Charge Lamont Pugh, III of the HHS Office of Inspector General’s (OIG)
Chicago Regional Office.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant
U.S. Attorneys Frances Lee Carlson and Philip A. Ross of the Eastern District
of Michigan, with assistance from Assistant Chief Gejaa T. Gobena of the
Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the FBI and
HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised
by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
Eastern District of Michigan.

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force
operations are part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement
Action Team (HEAT), a joint initiative announced in May 2009 between the
Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud
and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country.

Since their inception in March 2007,
strike force operations in nine locations have charged more than 1,330
defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more
than $4 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase
accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.